Saturday, January 10, 2015

Dillon Reservoir and Loveland Pass

Based on webcam recons, I decided to ride Scarlett over towards the mountain town of Dillon, just west of the Continental Divide along the I-70 super slab.

Traffic was heavy from Floyd Hill west, slow and go until I managed to bail at Idaho Springs where I fueled up. I then took frontage roads while the herds of cagers continued up the super slab towards the Eisenhower Tunnel.

Soon though, I was at Georgetown and had to join the herds of cagers in the final miles before the tunnel. Third gear was in order even with the heavy traffic as I could feel a pretty strong headwind buffeting us from the west.

Finally, we were in the tunnel and we crossed the Continental Divide 2 hrs and 10 minutes after leaving home, usually it takes us perhaps 1 hour and 30 minutes!

After a rapid and steep descent on I-70 from the tunnel, we got off on the Dillon exit and after plodding our way through town (it was packed with skiing tourists), we got on US6 and shortly after we passed the Dillon Marina (Highest deep water Marina they claim), we turned off on Swan Mountain Road.

Swan Mountain Road allows one to get a nice shot of the Dillon Reservoir and a ridgeline with some really fancy houses built to enjoy the view.

Dillon Reservoir, frozen over and quite scenic

I then turned Scarlett around and we merged back with US6, now heading east towards the summit of Loveland Pass. The ski resorts of Keystone and Arapahoe Basic came and went, and I felt sorry for the masses of skiers queued up at the lifts waiting their turn. Still, it wasn't really crowded though the parking lots were full.

The sun started to get past the mostly cloudy conditions at the summit and I took my time posing Scarlett at several stops.

On the hairpin turn overlooking the Keystone Resort,

I think that's Ten Mile Range in the distance?

As you can see, the slopes were not very crowded

Ascending towards the summit from the A-Basin area

At the major hairpin turn perhaps a mile from the summit

of Loveland Pass

Now nearing the summit, the sun was painting the nearby

mountain peaks quite nicely.

Near the sign for the summit of Loveland Pass

11,990 feet

Looking east as one descends from the Loveland Pass Summit

Scarlett and I used the I-70 Super Slab to make our way back to the Metro Denver area. We did stop briefly at Georgetown to get a closer look at what appeared to be ice racing by jeeps and cars.

Now those are some serious spikes on the tires!

There were less than ten vehicles and perhaps a couple of dozen of folks watching. I ventured out onto the frozen lake a bit but had zero traction with my motorcycle boots! I managed to make it back to shore without falling and left the ice racers merrily spinning about the ice.

I did try and take some video but for some reason, it didn't record. Weird.

The rest of the riding was just super slab riding in medium to heavy traffic all the way home. About seven hours in the saddle, but it felt good to be out riding in the mountains. Hope you got some riding in.....

Reading about your battle of getting out of the metro area makes me appreciate living on the country side. Ok, mountains might not be that spectacular in the Black Forest but I am out of town and into the woods in ten minutes tops.

Your pictures are impressive as usual, and should I ever come your way you will have to take me there...